Green Options

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My first post on green walking provided some hopefully handy tips for you to go walkabout, to get out in nature and do some green walking. In the age where any travel that is not sustainable is terribly costly in many, many ways, it is more imperative than ever for each of us to become a peripatetic.

But here is the good news: Green walking is not just “nature walking” per se, not just walkabout. Green walking is also ideal for city travel…helping cut down on many kinds of pollution, smog that obscures the lovely natural views everywhere, travel expenses, resource consumption, and driver rage, just to name a few things.

In order to facilitate your transition from commuter to sustainable commuter, from walker to green walker, I offer here a few more tips on green walking in a city environment…on going urban walkabout.

1. Like walkabouts in nature, urban walkabouts should be as sensual as possible. Although some urban settings have been deliberately “greened up” with strategic flowerbeds, parks, and eco-friendly architecture, many cities are truly urban jungles–forests of concrete. But even here you can listen to the cooing of pigeons or find some green things struggling for life in the cracks of sidewalks. And there are often flower shops, produce stands, and pets to be encountered. So enjoy these instances of nature-here-and-now whenever you can. Of course, the sun is almost always shining–or if not, then rain is falling or wind is blowing–so you still can likely get some sensual stimulation on your urban walkabout if you pay attention.

Inspired by Caroline Savery’s great post on bicycling in the city, I wanted to comment on yet another alternative mode of transportation: walking.

Walking? C’mon.

Yes, walking. Seriously. Walking is not only easy to do and inexpensive (unless you go all out and make it complicated and costly), but it is also a wonderful way to go green–to travel without using up one fuel source or another, to keep the planet and yourself healthy, and to enjoy the health-giving splendor of nature.

If you want to go green, then just go walkabout!

Green Walking? C’mon.

Yes, green walking. Walkabout. Seriously. And in order to facilitate your transition from normal, mundane, boring old walking to green walking, to walkabout, I offer here a brief introduction and field guide, a short vade mecum of tips for all the walkabouters.

1. First and foremost, for walking to be green walking or walkabout, it must be entirely sensual. Your walking should stimulate every sense in some way, and you should appreciate the stimulation and the sources with full reverence and revelry:

Peak driving season, when many Americans hit the road to visit relatives or see the sights, is now in full swing. With U.S. gas prices topping $4 a gallon in some places — and likely to edge up more during summer’s high demand — you may want to consider taking more efficient mass transportation.

But if you travel by car, you can still cut your fuel usage, save money and reduce your carbon footprint by driving smart.

1. Look into going by train or bus instead of by car or plane.

Taking a train or a bus, instead of driving or flying, results in less global warming pollution per person for the miles traveled (and may cost less, too).

On average, taking a trip by bus produces the least amount of greenhouse gas per passenger mile, followed by train travel, then air. Cars, light trucks and motorcycles contribute the most to global warming pollution.

This past week, I had the amazing opportunity to visit and enjoy Yellowstone, our nations first national park. I had never been and was completely amazed and overwhelmed by the vast mountains and wondrous landscape. I had the chance to see grizzly bears, wolves, bison, elk, otter, antelope and so much more.

Seeing such amazing wildlife just reinforced why I care so much about this planet and why we need to find a balance between people and wildlife. It solidified in my mind just how precarious that balance is and how precious clean air, water and land really is.

Like a typical tourist, I spent some time perusing gift shops at various points of interest throughout the park. I was taken aback by the amount of well, stuff, to put it politely, that I found in them. Much of the, ahem, stuff, was made from China, too. All I could think of was lead and the recalls. Ick. But I really wanted to bring back something special to the special people in my life.

With summer right around the corner, restless employees are eagerly scratching at the doors to get out of the office and slip into their fantasy vacations. One thing that we should all consider is the impact that our summer travel is going to have on the very places that we are dying to get out and enjoy.

Fortunately, some hotels and travel companies are getting the message and are making changes to help conserve and reduce impact. Several options exist to minimize your footprint on the road and in the skies this summer.

I remember reading the little placard on the bathroom vanity advising me to hang my damp towels with curiosity. We were on vacation and it was the first time I had ever heard of such a thing. We did this at home, but it seemed more practical - a way to avoid doing laundry each night. There was also a note about turning the lights out when we left our room. Little things.

We discussed the hanging of the towels and the turning off of the lights over a shrimp dinner that night at some tourist trap. I remember my mom saying that if we all do a little, we can do a lot. So I thought it was great when I heard of Florida Gov. Charlie Crist’s new executive order that requires state agencies and departments to hold meetings and conferences at lodgings that meet the new Florida Green Lodging standards.

In my talks, I have talked a lot about reinventing normal life and in particular our notions of mobility (among other things)…
Part and parcel is this idea that it’s a small world. We get this small world idea from Disneyland as kids (recall hearing mechanical children swaying to the refrain “Its a small world after all”) as well as from seemingly serendipitous encounters that are probably statistically ordinary in a world were people jet and motor around the country. It is easy to think that the world is small when one can get from point A anywhere in the global economy to point B anywhere in the global economy within a matter of hours (rather than days or months). It makes it easy for us spread out families and friends as people chase paychecks and jobs across the country if not the planet.

Editor’s note: Got a trip to the UK coming up? If so, Life Goggles notes that it will soon be easier to find eco-friendly accommodations, as the British Tourism Board has launched a new program for certifying “green” hotels. This post was originally published on Tuesday, April 29, 2008.

VisitBritain, Britain’s National Tourist Board has launched a new program to help accommodation providers and visitor attractions in England take the first steps toward becoming sustainable businesses.

The Green Start project aims to encourage a “rapid, widespread and significant increase in the adoption of sustainable tourism principles” by offering a validated sustainable accreditation scheme.

Jason Freezer, VisitBritain’s sustainable tourism project manager, said: “VisitBritain is committed to encouraging sustainable businesses. However, nearly two-thirds tell us they need more guidance on developing their business in that way.”

Today I have returned home having travelled via London’s infamous Heathrow Airport - known disaffectionately by many frequent flyers as Hellrow. I can fully appreciate this sentiment among travellers and can safely say that by just about any measure, Heathrow is the world’s worst airport. And it’s about to get a whole lot worse..

Having had a minor makeover in the form of a new terminal building which brings some aspects of travel via Heathrow into the 21^st century, most travellers are still subjected to an experience which does more to discourage flying than any environmental campaign could ever hope to achieve.

However, the real controversy at Heathrow right now concerns the proposal to build a third runway in response to ever increasing demands for capacity. This proposal has a significant environmental footprint; carbon emissions from additional flights alone will be equal to the those of the entire nation of Kenya, up to 4,000 houses may be bulldozed, including the entire village of Sipson, a graveyard and several historically relevant buildings.

Last week I wrote about the lamentable state of British rail services, pointing out that railways in general will need to raise their game if they are to encourage significant numbers of people to abandon the car and go for green rail instead.

So who are the world’s most railway friendly countries, and what can we learn from them about implementing practical rail services that people will actually want to use?

Data provided by The International Union of Railways shows Japan as the world leader among major economies in rail kilometres per inhabitant, followed by Europe lead by the Swiss. The United Kingdom comes, unsurprisingly, near the bottom, with the USA coming last - US citizens traveling one thirteenth the distance of the Japanese by rail.

A Tufts senior e-mailed me the other day, attaching her resume and asking for career advice. While that play of events seems typical, her ambitions probably didn’t fit the cookie-cutter mold of most of her class peers. She wanted to run her own eco-retreat center one day, felt passion for the green movement and embraced her ecopreneurial passions.

In short, she blew away the goals and mindset I had back in my twenty-something days, when the only “green” in my world came out of an ATM machine. And frankly, as I’ve been off the mainstream career path for nearly two decades now, I don’t typically have seniors knocking on my e-mail door for advice. So I felt compelled to launch a dash of the unconventional her way — a dose of out-of-the-box career advice for someone heading down ecopreneurial career paths at a young age. Here’s what I sent to her: